When a business tells us Google Ads "doesn't work", the cause is usually one of four setup problems, not Google Ads itself. Here's what we check first in every audit, and how to fix each one.
By Kok Han · 3 November 2026
About 90% of the accounts we audit have a conversion tracking problem. The business can't tell which clicks or keywords bring in enquiries, so they're advertising blindly, and Google's bidding is guessing too.
The other problems we see again and again are the location setting, the Search Partners network, and keywords that are far too broad. Each one is quick to check, and fixing them often changes results within weeks.
— Kok Han, Founder, OneStopMaker (Google Partner agency)
When prospects tell us they tried Google Ads and it didn't work, we don't start by changing the ads. We start with an audit: a long checklist that walks through the account from the keyword someone searched, to the click, to the landing page, to whether that visit became an enquiry. In most accounts, the problem shows up in the first few checks.
Here are the four we find most often, how to check them yourself, and what to do about each.
This is the big one. If Google Ads doesn't know which clicks turned into leads, neither do you. You can see clicks and spend, but not which keywords, ads or locations actually brought customers. Smart Bidding strategies like Maximize conversions also rely entirely on this data, so wrong tracking means Google optimises for the wrong thing.
Common versions of this problem:
How to check: in Google Ads, go to Goals → Conversions → Summary. Look at which actions are marked as primary, and whether they've recorded anything recently. Then submit a test enquiry on your own website and see if it appears the next day.
We explain what to track and how in our guide to conversion tracking.
Many accounts target the right country or city but use the location option "Presence or interest". That means Google can show your ads to people who are only interested in your area, not people who are actually there. For a clinic in Petaling Jaya or a repair shop in Singapore, those clicks are rarely useful.
How to check: open the campaign, go to Settings → Locations → Location options, and look at the Target setting. For most local businesses, choose "Presence: People in or regularly in your included locations". Then check Insights & reports → When and where ads showed → Locations to see where your clicks have actually been coming from.
By default, Search campaigns can also show on the Google Search Partners network: third-party websites that use Google's search technology. Most business owners expect their ads to appear on Google Search, not on other sites they've never heard of.
Search Partners isn't always bad, but it should be a decision, not an accident. How to check: in the campaign table, use Segment → Network (with search partners) to compare results. If Search Partners spends money without producing leads, go to Settings → Networks and untick "Include Google search partners".
Broad keywords, especially with broad match and no negative keywords, can trigger ads for searches that have nothing to do with what you sell: job seekers, students, DIY searches, competitors' products, even other industries. The money disappears quietly, because the clicks still look normal in the campaign view.
Real example (Malaysia, industrial B2B): the costliest waste is rarely an obvious junk search. In one industrial account, searches for a product the client didn't even stock had cost over RM500 before we caught it.
How to check: open Insights & reports → Search terms, set the last 30 days and sort by cost. Anything that could never become a customer should become a negative keyword. Our free negative keyword list builder gives you a starting list, including Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese terms.
We look at the account as a funnel and find where it leaks:
| Stage | What we check |
|---|---|
| Keyword | Are the keywords and search terms relevant? Are match types and negatives set up properly? |
| Click-through rate | Do the ads match what people searched? Are the location and network settings right? |
| Landing page | Does the page match the ad, load quickly, and make it easy to call, WhatsApp or fill in a form? We use Microsoft Clarity to see how real visitors use the page. |
| Conversion | Is every real enquiry tracked, and only real enquiries? Which keywords and clicks actually bring them? |
Only once the tracking is trustworthy do we change bids, budgets and keywords, because before that every decision is a guess.
Singapore, phone repair: we set up conversion tracking, cleared out the bad search terms and focused the budget on the keywords that actually brought enquiries. WhatsApp conversions doubled in 1 month.
United States, private schools: once conversion tracking showed what was and wasn't working, we optimised towards tour bookings. Tour bookings rose by about 50% in 2 months, with the same budget.
If you answered "no" to any of these, start there. You can also work through our free Google Ads checklist, or ask us for a free audit and we'll go through your account with you.
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